A local couple seeks answers after what they call a night of terror inside their Hartland Township home.

Kallie Garza said it still frightens her to recall the Saturday night break-in, and beatings of her boyfriend and stepfather, for reasons that remain unclear.

Two men broke into the home the three share on a residential street just west of Tipsico Lake Road, near M-59, south of Dunham Hills.

“What they wanted, I don’t know,” Garza said. “I mean there were two (computer) tablets out, and they didn’t take them.”

She and her boyfriend, Joe Albert, were relaxing inside the home, watching TV at about 9:45 p.m., when the break-in occurred.

The men, wearing ski masks and dressed in work clothes and boots, entered through a sliding door at the rear of the house, Albert said.

The house was well-lighted, Albert added, with the robbers likely watched from outside as he and Garza sat inside.

“They might have been watching us for a while,” Garza said.

Arborvitae trees in the backyard, she added, could have concealed the men from neighbors and passers-by.

Garza and Albert said they were startled to find the two men inside the house.

“At first, I thought it was a joke,” Garza said.

Yet it quickly became clear that it wasn’t.

One of the men beat Albert with a nightstick, Garza said, as another struggled to pin him down.

Then men then turned their attention to her, Garza said, ordering her to remain quiet. Garza said one of the men told her he had a gun, but neither she nor Albert saw a weapon.

She said she’s glad they honored her one request: not to go upstairs.

“I had two little brothers there,” she said of her siblings, ages 5 and 6.

The men then tied the couple’s hands with electrical tape, she added.

It was then that Garza said she realized how badly her boyfriend was injured.

“I felt something wet on my arm, and it was blood,” she said.

Alerted by the commotion, her stepfather came down the stairs only to be jumped by the intruders and endure what Garza called an even more savage beating.

“They both had to receive staples, but he (the stepfather) got the worst of it,” she said.

The older man struggled with the baton-wielding intruder, then headed out the door to the front yard, where the struggled continued. Albert grappled with the other man until he could push him out the front door.

While the struggle was going on, Garza said she loosened the tape that bound her hands and grabbed a house phone, calling 911 as she ran out a side door.

Rather than continuing their attack, the men walked off.

“They were just walking, not running,” Albert said.

But evidence was left behind, the couple said.

Garza’s stepfather ripped off one of his attackers’ ski masks. The robbers also left the nightstick behind, she said.

Garza said her stepfather opened his wallet and threw money at them as they exited, but she’s not even sure that was what they were after. The intruders took the money.

While break-ins of occupied dwellings are rare, Garza’s response was even more rare.

She took to social media to alert friends and reporters about the incident.

“Somebody knows something,” she said.

Both Garza and Albert said they remain shaken.

“You live in a place all this time and you think you’re safe,” Albert said.

Michigan State Police at the Brighton post confirmed late Monday that an investigation is ongoing. However, authorities did not release many details.

A state police press release indicated that the intruders had fled by the time troopers arrived on scene. A canine track was conducted and it was determined the suspects fled the area in a vehicle, but additional details were not released.

Tips can be called in the the state police Crime Stoppers tip line at 1-800-773-2587. The business number for the Brighton post is 517-227-1051 and business hours are from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.